Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Value of acoustical treatments

Hello All

I have been a lurker on these boards for some time and I must say it can certainly become addictive.This is my first post here (or on any board for that matter) so I hope it doesn't become to long and boring.

I plan on starting my dedicated home theatre in the near future and need to hear someone say that the time and money spent on doing the "whole nine yards" in accoustical treatment is worth the effort. I don't mind taking the time, or even the added cost, but I need to know that it will make me feel the "WOW" factor, as opposed to if only some bass traps and 1st reflection panels were done. I have looked jealously at many of the DIY home theatres on this and other boards and the use of GOM lined walls etc. is very tempting. The room (approx 12'x21'x8'in our basement)may not be our last home theatre as I can envision moving in 3 or 4 years. Also, and quite frankly, I don't believe my wife would appreciate the difference, or care, if I completely treated the room, or if I left the 2"x4" studs uncovered, nothing on the ceiling and a boom box for the stereo system, so this will probably be for my own pleasure. I plan a front projector and the Axiom Epic 60-500 system by the way. I listened to a pair of Monitor Audio speakers the other day in a local stereo shop and have read somewhere they are somewhat comparable to the Axioms, and these were on the main floor showroom with no treatments in the room, and they sounded terrific! Keep in mind I will be moving up from a Bose mini-cube sound system. (Please be kind as it served my purposes for a period of time where I had a much smaller room)

Bottom line I guess is that I would like to hear some of your thoughts on the subject. Remember I would like the added work to give the "WOW" differnce, not the, "oh yeah that does sound somewhat better". I understand sound is perceived and appreciated differently by each person but perhaps someone here has experienced both a normal room and then treated the same room room and can relay their experience.

Thanks for your feedback and sorry for the long post!

Meddy

The short answer is , yes, room treatments or rather, proper room construction is at least as important as the home theater components.

A $3,000 system in a properly set up room can sound as good as a $50,000 system in an average room. Having a well setup dedicated theater room will give you the WOW effect that is very difficult to produce in your average living/dining room setup.

I bought a bunch of treatment pieces at an estate sale a while ago. The ones I didn't sell on craigslist certainly helped get rid of some weird transients in my room.

Did the transients stay long? If so, how did you get the urine-y smell out of your carpet?

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Did the transients stay long? If so, how did you get the urine-y smell out of your carpet?

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Trust me: You really don't want to know. I have 3 dogs and 4 cats.

Peter, that's really freakin' funny!

Coming from a jolly fat man, that means a lot.

Plus, there's my Avatar.

I found that a few hundred $ in acoustical panels for 1st and 2nd reflection points made a huge difference in my room. I currently have six panels in a small room (4 on the side walls and two in the rear). I am no good at describing sound changes; however, it was a greater (or more noticable) improvement than any change in components that I have made over the years.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the replys and I think I'll probably end-up doing as Mr booboy did by adding a few acoustical panels to start. Although by the time I get to that stage I'm sure I'll have read thousands of more posts and changed my mind several thousand more times. I can hardly wait to get started.....now if I can just convince my wife how much the new theatre will enrich her life!!

I found that the improvement from even simple acoustic treatments was surprisingly large. In my case the problem was a highly reflective rear wall -- even simple treatments (eg. holding a pillow behind my head ) took me from no imaging to extremly good imaging.

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holding a pillow behind my head

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but then your arms got tired?

Yeah, it also looked really dumb. Having said that, the sonic difference was a real eye-opener. If you don't believe in acoustic treatments it's worth prototyping with pillows or cushions just to see how much difference some minor treatments can make.

The new house is going to be a real challenge because the loft has 45 degree angles on the ceiling/walls, so there will definitely be a need for treatments there. For now I'm just going to treat the first reflection points (material TBD) and figure out if I need bass traps or not before going any further.

Bridgman

I see we live in close proximity so maybe we should get together and develop a customized "Obus-Form Acoustical Pillow" that will make all other forms of acoustical treatments redundant

Aw Right Lloyd! Good one!